Tongol: Unfair to call vote on VP bank, tax records a conviction vote

MANILA, Philippines — Public sentiment that the vote of the senator-judges on issuing a subpoena for Vice President Sara Duterte’s financial records will reflect their vote on Duterte’s conviction is “unfair,” impeachment court Reginald Tongol said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Inquirer, Tongol responded to online discussions, saying that the first vote the Senate impeachment court will take on Wednesday afternoon may parallel its decision on whether to convict the vice president.

“I think that it would be unfair for our Senator-judges to color their voting. Because the only issue here is the right of a citizen in private matters,” Tongol said.

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He continued: “It has nothing to do with their political leanings or their alleged color or the ultimate question, because it is so focused on those legal issues that it is unfair for the public to judge them; whatever their decision is here, that is their decision on the ultimate question.”

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READ: Defense, prosecution start oral arguments on tax, bank records

Tongol was also asked about the public discourse that criticizes some senator-judges of “lawyering” for either the defense or the prosecution during the period of interjections.

The spokesperson assured that the senator-judges are simply hashing out details unclear to them to help on their eventual decision.

“I think that is a hard line to balance, really… The overarching thing that overcomes them is seeing the evidence and asking questions about what is not clear to them. That’s why they stand up and question the witness as well as the prosecution,” he said.

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In the same breath, Tongol called such discourse “unfair,” saying there have been only five of 92 trial days so far, and that the Senator-judges know what they are doing.

“As for the effect of it to the public, I think our senator-judges are very wise and also very seasoned, they already know their actions… so I don’t think we have to question their motives in raising those questions, and it’s also unfair to say that they are lawyers because of course this is just the beginning, we’ve only been going for five days,” Tongol asserted. /das

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